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21 May 2012

To all those new bloggers out there...

Wow, it feels like only yesterday i started this blog, when in reality it was months ago.

A few days ago, i found myself having a delightful conversation about blogging with one of my friends, lets call her Mack (not in any way a representation of her actual name). Now, Mack loves books, as do i, and is thinking about starting a blog. Of course, i was like 'sure thing bro, we'll be awesome blogging biddie central!'

Sadly, this has actually happened to me...at a pool

And as any blogging biddie would do, i gave her a few starting tips, such as;
1. Review a few times a week
2. Make sure to put on big book news, etc.
3. Participate in blog hops
4. Host giveaways
5. Comment, comment, comment
6. Wait until you have at least 100 followers before you request an ARC.

This was the monent when she went, 'Wait, what? I don't get free books for ages?'. And all i could do was sigh and explain the many intricacies of ARCs and the wonderful yet sometimes crushing publishers that send them.

Thankfully, she wasn't quite that devastated...nothing can beat the disappointment when you find out THAT

So you see, lovely girl that she is, Mack made the mistake of wanting to start a book blog only to get free ARCs, when in reality a lot of hard work is needed before you can even get CLOSE to that. A lot of people start a blog expecting to succeed within only a couple of months, when it can actually take more than a year to get the kind of base to start all of that stuff. And that's even without this thing called LIFE.

Once, i was like Mack, i was fully expecting to have at least 100 followers within the month and 1000 in a year. But then i had all that stuff with my knee, and my med course, and family, and really those resolutions went down the drain in a matter of weeks.

So, for all you peeps who are new to the blogging bizzo or who want to get started, be prepared for the long haul, because sometimes you just can't be stuffed and it takes constant effort to maintain a popular and successful blog. Put in the work, and you get the reward, just make sure you can do it, as i told Mack.
But by all means, go ahead and make you're own little patch of internet realestate, and hopefully one day i'll be visiting you, instead of the other way around.